Evaluation

Storyboard

Metz's Theory applied to Romantic Comedy

Expermimental

The Awful Truth (1937)
City Lights (1931)
Holiday (1938)

Classic/Classical

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
That Touch of Mink (1962)
The Apartment (1960)

Parody

Date Movie
Something About Mary
Not Another Teen Movie
American Pie

Deconstruction

Enchanted
Miss Congeniality

Christian Metz: Theory Of Genre Development

Metz believed that genre develops through four stages:

• Experimental - Bulding blocks for future horrors to go by. Early stages of horror setting up the general codes and conventions of the horror genre.
  
• Classic/Classical - Movies that have followed the general guidelines set out in the experimental stage.
  
• Parody - Movies that mock the genre, usually turned into comedy.
  
• Deconstruction - Movies that pick that take codes and conventions from the Horror and Thriller genre and combine them into one movie
  

These horror films:

• Se7en
• Frankenstein
• Dracula
• The Blair Witch Project
• The Sixth Sense
• Carry On Screaming
• Nosferatu
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• Scary Movie
• Abbot + Costello Meet Frankenstein
• Scream

Are all classed to be of the Horror Genre. Metz classified these into the four different stages of Genre Development.

Experimental

• Nosferatu
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Classical

• Dracula
• Frankenstein

Parody

• Carry On Screaming
• Abbot + Costello Meet Frankenstein

Deconstruction

• Se7en
• Scream
• The Sixth Sense
• The Blair Witch Project

2007 Top 10 Horrors!!!

Top 10 Horror Movies of all time:

• The Exorcist - Directed: William Friedkin
  Budget: $12,000,000
  Grossed: $441,071,011
  
• Alien - Directed: Ridley Scott
  Budget: $11,000,000
  Grossed: $104,931,801
  
• Dawn Of The Dead - Directed: George A. Romero
  Budget: $650,000
  Grossed: $55,000,000
  
• Halloween - Directed: John Carpenter
  Budget: $325,000
  Grossed: $150,000,000
  
• Night of the Living Dead - Directed: Dean Lachiusa & George A. Romero
  Budget: $114,000
  Grossed: $30,000,000
  
• The Shining - Directed: Stanley Kubrick
  Budget: $22,000,000
  Grossed: $64,984,856
  
• A Nightmare on Elm Street - Directed: Wes Craven
  Budget: $1,800,000
  Grossed: $25,504,513
  
• Psycho - Directed: Alfred Hitchcock
  Budget: $806,947
  Grossed: $32,000,000
  
• Dead Alive - Directed: Peter Jackson
  Budget: $3,000,000
  Grossed: $242,623
  
• Friday the 13th - Directed: Sean S. Cunningham
  Budget: $550,000
  Grossed: $59,700,000
  

Location Location

On Location at Sandhills, Walsall Wood

UnNatural First Look

On December 6th 2008 Me (Sam Cooper), Sam Wilson and Danny Jones went on a trip to the Sandhills, Walsall Wood Near Aldridge. This was a very successful day as whilst we were there we completely scrapped our original idea and managed to get a new improved idea. We took some photographs of the locations we are hoping to use which gave us a general idea of the shots we are going to use.

We encountered problems while we were there which encouraged us and helped us to improve and change the storyboard and script.Both the old and new story boards are shown on the Blog.

By exploring our locations we are now happy as a group and starting to decide what the best Camera angles, shots and editing techniques will be the best fit our Horror opening sequence.

Preliminary Task

We were asked to film a two minute sequence as preliminary project for our foundation portfolio just to get us used to using the cameras and using different shots. We were asked to include:

Shot-Reverse-Shot
Match On Action
Exchanging of an Object
A Door Opening
A Handshake

Working in a group with Danny Jones and Josh Lloyd we managed to perform and film a good quality project. We started off with our Stunt Coordinator “Me” driving onto the car park using a pan to follow the car round. We then cut to Danny exiting the car and dropping a cigarette, there was then a slow tilt up to his face to blow out the smoke. There was then a close up of Danny’s hand punching in the code to the door and a match on action of him opening the door and walking through it.

We then included a hand held shot from the top of the stairs as Danny walked up them which looked very effective and was then pointed out to us it was in the style of Luc Besson (Leon)

A shot of the back of the josh and a slow zoom as he spun on the chair worked very well and then a slow pan of Danny walking across the room looked very effective. A very well timed shot reverse shot finished off the short film as the handover was made between Danny and Josh.

10 Things I Hate About You

Director - Gil Lunger

Starring - Heath Ledger, Larissa Oleynik, Julia Stiles, Andrew Keeghan

Genre: Romantic Comedy

• Credits - Look Scribbled
  
• Non-Diegetic Music (Bare Naked Ladies - One Week)
  
• High School Kids
  
• Rebellious Teens
  
• Hockey - American
  
• High School
  
• New Kid - Moves A lot - Geeky
  
• Counsellor Typing sexual story, Swearing - Unexpected - Comedy

• Rebellious Guy and Girl - Shows Match at beginning
  
• Slow Motion as main actress girl walks passed main lad - Couple that will have to work for relationship
  
• Vanity
  
• Protective Father.

• Close Ups - Introducing Characters
  
• Almost Narrated by character introducing new kid to the school.

Leon

Leon

Director: Luc Besson

Starring: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman

Genre: Thriller

Leon is about a Hitman who helps out a young girl after her family are killed by a Corrupt Cop.  

• High Angle Shots
• Fast Paced Music
• Heavy Breathing
• Guns
• Weapons
• Sunglasses, Hiding face causes suspicion
• Drugs
• Run Down apartment block
• Shooting
• Italian Mafia
• Police
• Crime Scene

• Shot Reverse Shot
• Tilts
• Pans
• Match On Action
• Close Ups

• Plant, Suggests he can only car for inanimate objects
• Milk, childlike drinks milk not beer as would be expected
• Leon can be caring but struggles to care for people because of what he does
• Plays to his strengths/Can't Read
• Intertextuality/Mickey Mouse/Childish
• Money
• Corruption
• Sadness, not always relevant to a Thriller.

28 Days Later

28 Days Later
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris

Genre: Horror

28 Days Later is a horror film about the Human Race being devastated by a virus that is turning them all into "The Infected". "The Infected" are running around searching for their next victims as they feed on them to stay alive. Any blood or bite from "The Infected" will turn a normal human being into one of these creatures.

The start of the Film is a news report which to me suggests realism. It starts off on this news report to make us believe it is really happening in the world. By then cutting to a shot of Three Activists breaking into an animal research facility it also suggests problems that people are fighting against in the world today such as Animal Testing. We see while the activists are in the Lab, Monkeys, which are behaving in a very aggressive manner which suggests to me these maybe the cause of the virus being spread throughout the film. The activists attempt to free the monkeys which then attack one of them and she becomes one of "The Infected". A lot of blood is incorporated into the shot which suggests horror film as it is a general convention of a horror films.

The next scene is Jim (Cillian Murphy) in a Hospital which suggests injuries, possibly one of the infected, at this point we are still unaware as to what is definitely going on. Jim wakes up from a Coma which he has suffered and has no idea what has happened with regards to "The Infected". He gets out of his bed and starts to wander around the hospital but there is no-one around the Hospital is completely deserted. There is a lot of product placement in this scene with things such as Pepsi, Tango and Costa Coffee. These also suggest realism as they are everyday products and not something we haven't heard of. Lots of high angle and low angle shots are suggesting he is being watched which is a cliché because there is nobody around. These shots are quite often codes of horror films as if people are being watched by the things that are going to kill them.

When Jim leaves the hospital he enters London which is completely deserted. This shows Jim is alone and still unaware to what is going on while he has been in a coma. I believe this has been used to show that Jim is lost not only physically lost but also lost in his mind with regards to what is happening around him. When he is walking around London, still, a lot of high and low angle shots are being used to establish the scenery but to also make us feel like Jim is being watched.

The Non-Diegetic music is Fast Paced I believe this maybe to represent Jim's frame of mind, all the different thoughts inside his head and also his heartbeat as he starts to panic when there is nobody around. The camera shots are also fast paced which go along with the fast paced music to suggest a similar thing.

Jim enters a church which suggests he feels it could be a safe place for him to go. As he walks into the building there is writing on the wall saying "the end is extremely f**king nigh" this suggests to me that the people of the church have lost hope and fear it is going to be the end. Jim seeks out a priest who has been infected. This suggests to me that the director wants us to think that not even God can help "The Infected".

Jim then goes back outside into the open and the camera begins to cut between shots suggesting to me the Unawareness and Fear in Jim because he does not know what is happening to him.